1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a baler and, more particularly, is concerned with an improvement for removing end play between the components of a tying mechanism on the baler.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
A conventional baler has a tying mechanism mounted on a fore-and-aft extending bale forming chamber of the baler. The tying mechanism is commonly mounted above the top of the bale chamber and a plurality of needles are mounted below the bottom of the bale chamber which are operable to carry strands of banding material upwardly through the bale chamber to the tying mechanism upon completing formation of a bale in the bale chamber.
The tying mechanism includes a main transverse drive shaft and a stack or assembly of two or three side-by-side tying units mounted thereon, depending upon whether two or three strands of material are to band the completed bale. The tying units are movable axially along the shaft to initially adjust and set up the same at predetermined operational positions relative to each other wherein they will be properly aligned with the strand-carrying needles. Ordinarily, annular cylindrical-shaped collars and/or washers are mounted on the shaft between the tying units for maintaining the units at such predetermined positions and for providing surfaces that will accept wear and thereby minimize the amount of wear on the adjacently-positioned surfaces of the tying units.
For proper operation of the tying mechanism, the tying units and the collars and/or washers therebetween must be retained together in a compact stack or assembly. Excessive "end play" or looseness between the components will accelerate wear and, if not corrected, can result in breakage of operative parts of the tying units. Since some end play commonly develops between the components of the stack during long periods of normal use of the baler, periodic checks must be carried out and adjustments undertaken in order to discover and correct the end play problem.
Heretofore, in order to remove end play between the components, the operator has had to disassemble one or more of the tying units from the drive shaft and then insert additional washers on the shaft to fill the unwanted space which had developed between the components as the components are reassembled back together on the shaft.
Because of the inconvenience of this adjustment procedure for correction of the end play problem and the inordinate amount of time required to carry it out, operators are apt to delay making the necessary end play corrections until it is too late.